


An Unknown Element

by SingingInTheRaiin



Series: Worth the Wait [7]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Gen, I may be tackling ideas that are too big for me to handle, Pregnancy, Probably more angst though, Semi-graphic childbirth, The Baby is Fine, The Doctor is rude, Time Travel, and mentions of dancing, but hell if I'm not going to try anyways, if it can even be called that, mostly just innuendos, nothing explicit though, rated m because this Doctor has a dirty mind, the Doctor and Rose will have a different reason to be sad though, warning for the Doctor's fashion sense, whoops looks like I've accidentally added some plot to my series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-23 22:57:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21328078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Rose is pregnant, and her and the Doctor both need to get used to the idea of being parents together. The idea of being able to create a family seems perfect to both of them. They can only hope that the universe will let them have just this one thing (though if they know anything about the universe, it's that it never seems to be on their side).
Relationships: Fourteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Martha Jones/Mickey Smith, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler
Series: Worth the Wait [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1488425
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	An Unknown Element

**Author's Note:**

> This series has definitely gone very far from the initial premise of Rose waiting with Rory, but hopefully y'all are enjoying where this has been going.

The Doctor looked doubtfully at the toddler in front of them who was in the middle of stuffing a large handful of macaroni and cheese into her mouth. Most of it missed, and fell onto her lap or stuck to her shirt, though she seemed entirely unbothered by the mess. Then the Doctor turned to look at Rose. “Ours is going to be better than that… right?”

Rose punched the Doctor in the shoulder. “Hey, don’t be mean, that’s your future wife you’re talking about.”

The Doctor looked at the toddler again, and then back at his wife. He was definitely glad that he’d met her at a point in time where she was capable of eating properly. Then he looked around the room, just waiting for Jackie Tyler to burst in and start throwing hands. She’d never seemed particularly fond of the Doctor at any time, but he imagined that it would be much worse at a time when she didn’t even know him, and he was standing in her living room with her daughter. 

Rose reached down to slip her hand into the Doctor’s, and give it a gentle squeeze. “I can’t believe that of the two of us, I’m the baby expert. You need to relax. This is going to be wonderful.” She laughed at the look on the Doctor’s face. “Well, we could look at someone else’s baby? What about Mickey’s? They’ve had a second one recently.” Then she waved one hand through the air. “Well, relatively recently, since he’s a toddler in this time. Come on.” 

The Doctor shook his head and turned back to the door of the Tyler residence. “I already told you, time traveling without a container is terrible enough when everyone is in perfect health-”

“I am in perfect health still, love,”

“-let alone when there’s another passenger! To the TARDIS!” He threw out one hand like he was leading a charge, and Rose just rolled her eyes before following after him. 

,,,

The Doctor peered down at the bundle in Martha’s arms, and then looked over at Rose. “Ours is going to be better looking than that one, right?”

Mickey looked ready to throw a punch, and Martha actually did slug the Doctor in the shoulder. “You never get any less rude, do you? What is wrong with you? This girl is absolutely beautiful.”

The Doctor scrunched up his nose. “I don’t know if I’d say beautiful. She looks a bit… wrinkly.”

He could feel simultaneous exasperation and amusement through his bond, and then Rose spoke with obvious restrained laughter. “That’s what all babies look like, love. Ours isn’t going to be any different.”

The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest. “In that case, I’m not sure I want one. Do we really need a wrinkly little gremlin running around on the TARDIS? Think of all the important wires they could get into!”

“We’ve talked about this,” Rose reminded him patiently. “That TARDIS is probably one of the safest places in the universe to raise a child. You know she’d never let anything happen to our baby, and she wouldn’t let the baby cause too much terror to herself.” She looked over at Martha and gave the other woman a big smile. “You’re right, she is beautiful.”

Mickey laughed as Rose took the baby from Martha’s arms to coo at the infant. “This is a big change, innit? Remember when we were younger and you would always insist that you were never going to have children? And now I’ve got two of ‘em and you’ve got one on the way.”

The Doctor knew that Rose always found it strange to think of her childhood, mostly because it had just been so damn long ago for her. But she had a pretty good memory, so he was sure she could recall Mickey’s words. She leaned forward to kiss the baby’s forehead, and then handed the girl back to her mother. “We were certainly different people back then. Oh, I’m so happy for you both. And I’m sure CJ is excited to be an older brother.”

The Doctor wasn’t sure why Martha laughed at that like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Oh, as if! He’s so jealous that he’s not the baby anymore! Nine years of getting all the attention apparently isn’t enough for him.”

“Well, you have younger siblings, right? You must know how he feels. Me and Mickey were both in the ‘only child’ club.”

Mickey looked at the Doctor with one eyebrow raised. “And what about you? Any siblings?”

The Doctor sighed, and nodded reluctantly as he thought about his family. They’d hardly talked to each other at all since Gallifrey had been released from the time lock. “I have an older brother. But family to Time Lords is a lot different than it is to humans. We were never exactly close.”

Martha gave him a sympathetic look, which the Doctor did not need or appreciate, and then she glanced pointedly at Rose’s stomach, which was easily hidden beneath the baggy t-shirt she’d stolen from the Doctor (it was a souvenir from Clara’s favorite place, and said ‘why did people not like the restaurant on the moon?’ and on the back said ‘because it had no atmosphere’) “So you must be pretty nervous, huh? You’re going to be a dad… again.” There was an awkward pause as the Doctor thought about Jenny, and then about the children he had loomed on Gallifrey, and about Susan who may as well have been his own daughter. Based on how things had ended with all of them, he didn’t exactly have the best track record of being a parent. 

He knew that Rose had to understand his feelings (even though if one were to count River as Rose’s, then Rose had a pretty good record so far). She reached out to rest her hand on his arm, and it immediately made him relax. He’d call it cheating, but he couldn’t deny that it was a pretty great thing overall, so he tended not to complain about her special power (and when he did complain, it was usually only about the fact that Rose was able to have that effect on pretty much anyone).

They stuck around to socialize for just a little bit longer before finally retreating back to the TARDIS to have some time to themselves. Rose had already informed the Doctor several times already that once the baby was born there would be a lot less time for just the two of them. When he’d pouted at that news, Rose had only laughed and reminded the Doctor that they’d had thousands of years with just the two of them, not counting the times that they had other companions travel with them. 

It still didn’t seem like enough, though. The Doctor could admit that he was greedy, and he could have infinity with Rose and it still wouldn’t feel like enough. It was one thing to share her with their friends, who were usually adults, or at least old enough to feed themselves, but it would be a whole different thing to share her with a tiny wrinkly gremlin that would demand all of her attention because it lacked the ability to fend for itself. 

He tried his best to hide those feelings from Rose, though. Because no matter how much he grumbled or complained, in the end the idea of having a family with Rose was truly a miraculous thing, and something that he never could have imagined for himself when he’d first met her. He’d been such a different person back then, physically and spiritually.

The Doctor shook his head and tried to keep his mind in the present as he plopped down on the couch next to Rose in the media room. They immediately gravitated towards each other until they were snuggled in a way that many of the Doctor’s previous selves would have been quite flustered to see, and they watched a crappy Disney movie that Rose had been talking about for ages. He didn’t even have to pretend to dislike it, it was just bad. The real proof that it was bad was in the fact that not even Rose liked it, and she was willing to look for the positive aspects of pretty much every movie, if only because ‘someone had to work very hard on it’. 

Rose groaned as she leaned back, pushing her head into the Doctor’s shoulder. “That was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever seen before in my entire life.”

“Oh, you’re not so old. I’m sure that there’s still plenty of bad movies left for you to watch.”

She laughed. “What do you think Rory and I did for over a thousand years? Because I can assure you that we ran out of things to talk about after the first decade or so. After that we just binge watched. Every film and television show my TARDIS could get her hands on.” She quieted for a moment, and the Doctor knew that it was because it was always difficult for her to think about the people they’d lost. Hell, it was difficult for the Doctor to think about his past too, and if it wasn’t for Rose, he’d probably never go back to see any old faces. When one lived for as long and as non-linearly as he and Rose did, leaving people behind was always the most difficult thing.

After a few minutes of just sitting together in comfortable silence, Rose cleared her throat. “Do you think that maybe it’s a good time to visit my mum? I mean, she has no idea that she’s got a grandkid on the way, and I’m probably not going to feel up to dimension jumping pretty soon.”

The Doctor curled his arms tighter around Rose, as if that could protect her from her own feelings. “Yeah, if that’s what you want to do then we can go there no problem.” Even after Gallifrey had been saved and it was possible to travel to parallel worlds again, Rose had never said anything about going to visit her mum. “I mean, I’m assuming you wouldn’t have brought it up if you didn’t want to go, but you haven’t seemed interested in visiting your mum in a while. I don’t think I’ve seen her in a couple of faces.”

Rose sighed, and pulled her knees up to her chest so that she could cuddle up against the Doctor even more efficiently. “Did I ever tell you what I talked about with my mum on the day of everything with Canary Wharf?” The Doctor wracked his memories, but when he couldn’t come up with anything, he just shook his head. Despite the many years they’d spent together, they hadn’t talked much about the first time they’d really been separated. Even feeling Rose safe in his arms, the Doctor still felt afraid that if he focused too much on back then, she’d fall again. “She said that, uh, that I'll just keep on changing. ‘And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman, this strange woman, walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she's not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human.’ Well, it’s certainly been more than fifty years, and the thing is, she was right. I’m not the same Rose Tyler that grew up in the Estates with my mum. I’m not sure that you could still call me human at this point. I just- I just don’t want her to look at me and feel sad that she was right.”

The Doctor gulped, and rested his chin on top of Rose’s head. “Of course you’re not the same person you were back then. And it’s not because that was thousands of years ago. Have you learned nothing about humans in the time we’ve been together? All they ever do is change, and grow. And that’s what’s happened, Rose. You’ve grown. You’re not just a bratty teenager, you’re a grown woman who understands the full consequences of her actions and makes informed decisions to always try and do the right thing. You’re someone who’s loved so many people, and been loved by so many in return. Someone who wakes up every morning with the intent to make the universe just a little bit better. How could that ever be a bad thing, compared to when you only had the narrow minded views that are so typical of humans? You’re-”

“Hang on, did you just call me a bratty teen?”

The bond let the Doctor know that Rose was only teasing, and he relaxed as he realized that somewhere in his babbling, he’d managed to say the right thing to make Rose feel better. “Er- no, definitely not. I’d never say such a thing.”

Rose laughed, and straightened up just so she could shove playfully at the Doctor. “You’re so full of it.” Then she leaned forward to give the Doctor a very pleasant kiss, until even his respiratory bypass wasn’t able to provide him with more air. She pulled away, and gave him a sappy look. “I think that we should see my mum,” she said decisively.

The Doctor blinked a couple of times, feeling slightly dazed from the kiss. “You- what? Rose, you can’t just kiss a guy like that and then start talking about your mum!”

She laughed again, and the Doctor was filled up with such a warm feeling inside that it was amazing he didn’t just burst from happiness. “Now, don’t complain Doctor. I’ll be sure to make it up to you.” She hopped up to her feet and held out one hand. “Would you care to _dance_?” The Doctor immediately forgot all grievances as he took Rose’s outstretched hand and let himself get led away to wherever Rose wanted to lead him. 

,,,

Jackie was waiting outside the TARDIS before they’d even finished materializing, thanks to the Doctor purposely letting the brakes drag just to annoy Rose. As soon as they were solid, Rose rushed towards the doors and stepped outside. Maybe back when they’d first met the Doctor would get irritated at Rose for throwing herself out of the TARDIS without knowing everything about the environment, but these days she probably knew about the potential dangers better than the Doctor did. 

He slowly walked out and smiled at the scene of Rose being tightly engulfed in a Jackie Tyler hug. He wanted to give them a chance to have a moment, and also had the strategic purpose in mind of hopefully not being smothered in either kisses or slaps from Jackie. Both were equally likely, and equally unappealing.

After several very long seconds, Jackie looked over Rose’s shoulders, and narrowed her eyes at the sight of the Doctor. “And who’s this, then?”

“Mum, this is the Doctor.” 

Jackie walked up to him, eyes still narrowed as she looked at him like he was some suspicious character. “Hm.” She stared at him, taking in everything (including his t-shirt that said ‘the rotation of the Earth really makes my day’ with a picture of the Earth and a ring around it, and the swirly tie that was hanging loosely around his neck). Jackie looked back at Rose. “You’re sure this is him?”

Rose laughed. “Reasonably certain.”

Jackie frowned. “Well, at least he’s not as skinny as the last one. Could do with a bit of a new wardrobe, hm? Honestly, I don’t think you should be letting this man dress himself.”

The Doctor tried to protest even as Rose laughed again. “I happen to look rather dashing!”

“You look like you’d get beaten up in secondary school.”

The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest, feeling rather attacked. It seemed impossible to get through an encounter with Jackie Tyler unscathed. Then Jackie turned to look at Rose again. “Come on, you should say hi to Tony! He’s on his holiday right now, and all he does is sit around and play video games. He’s missed you, you know.” She looked at the Doctor accusingly. “Just took off one day, she did. Her and her husband.” She frowned as a new thought occurred to her. “Which one are you, then?”

Rose swore under her breath, and the Doctor could feel her frustration through their bond. “Mum, can you just give us a second?”

Jackie rolled her eyes as she walked towards the very large house, grumbling under her breath the entire time. Once Jackie was out of earshot, Rose looked at the Doctor. “Oh, I’m such an idiot! Just because it was a while ago I mostly forgot about it. Doctor, I moved out of London once my TARDIS finished growing, and me and my husband traveled around for a while, but as he got older and older and I didn’t, we stopped being able to visit home anymore, and then once he was gone, I left and went back to our universe to look for you.” The Doctor blinked a couple of times, and tried to tamp down the jealousy he felt towards himself, since he’d already had far longer with Rose than the human Doctor possibly could have. He just waited, knowing that Rose would get to the point quicker if he didn’t try to ask questions. “The point is that at this time, there’s still a Rose Tyler and a Doctor in this universe somewhere, and they’re not on Earth at the moment, but we shouldn’t be here.”

The Doctor reached out to grab Rose’s hands to try and calm her fidgeting. “There’s been multiple me’s and multiple you’s in the same place before and it can be annoying, but it’s never been end-of-the-world disastrous.” 

Rose bit her lip, and the Doctor had to take a moment to force himself to remember that now wasn’t the time for dancing. “It’s not that I think anything bad would happen to the timelines. I would have been able to feel that the moment we landed if that was the case, and you probably would have too. It’s more about the emotions, I guess.” She took a deep breath in, then slowly let it out. “I love you, Doctor, with all my heart, and I love all the time we’ve had together, and I love all the time we’re going to have to together. But I loved the human Doctor, too. He was my first husband and because I had so much less time with him, that makes it all the more precious to me. I think that he probably assumed, or maybe even wanted for me to find you again once he was gone, but even so, I don’t want to risk him seeing you and being forced to think about the future where he won’t be the one with me anymore.”

The Doctor thought about that for a moment. He remembered when he was his tenth self in England in the 1500s, and how jealous he’d felt when he’d seen his older self kissing Rose, and immediately understood what Rose meant about her first husband. Still, they’d come all this way, and the Doctor was pretty sure that Rose just really needed a chance to talk with her mother.

He gave her hands gentle squeezes, and then leaned forward to kiss her forehead before speaking. “You said that the younger you and the metacrisis aren’t on Earth at the moment, right?” Rose nodded. “Well, it’s your decision to leave if you want to, but I think that you should take this opportunity to chat with your mum. Let her know she’s got a grandkid on the way. Ask her for advice on how to raise the most amazing children, since she clearly succeeded at that. And you haven’t seen your brother in a long time either, right? Or Pete?”

“A very long time,” Rose confirmed. She sighed, and then nodded once. “You’re too good at saying the right things. Alright, let’s stay then. But the moment I feel myself coming to Earth, you and I are out of here.”

The Doctor nodded. “Sounds good to me.” He let himself get led to the Tyler mansion. The last time he’d been there had been when he and Rose had gone undercover as wait staff and had saved Pete Tyler’s life when the Cybermen invaded. It was hard to believe that that had really been so long ago. 

Once they stepped inside, Jackie led them into the sitting room, and said she’d go fetch some tea. The Doctor opened his mouth to tell her that he hated tea, but then slumped back down in his seat and decided that it was safer to just keep it to himself. He’d find a clever way to switch his and Rose’s cups once Rose had finished hers, and then she could drink his as well.

Jackie came back a minute later and set a mug down in front of each of them, and a fourth one as well. “So what happened, then? Why the new face?”

Rose frowned. “Oh, it’s a long, boring story. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to hear it.”

Jackie waved her hand through the air. “Nonsense! Of course I want to hear about how my son-in-law managed to mess up badly enough to require regeneration!” 

The Doctor shot Rose a pleading look, and she promised through the bond that she wasn’t going to mention that he’d regenerated four times since Jackie had last seen him. Rose didn’t want her mother to know how long it had been. “Well, she- er, he- was very eager to go to this planet called Esperidees. It’s supposed to be a pleasure planet, but the Doctor brought us there during a time where they were going through a huge intergalactic war, so of course we got ourselves involved. We had a friend with us at the time, his name was Graham, and he was a bit on the older side, and he’d thrown his back out a few days before, but he’d insisted he was fine, and we believed him. Anyways, we were on the run from a group of invaders, and Graham couldn’t keep up. He was about to get blasted, but the Doctor managed to run back in time and threw her- himself in the way and got hit, and then regenerated into this fool that you see before you now. He was too out of it to be of much help, so it was me and the humans who had to solve everything, and then I gave the Doctor some tea to help with the regeneration sickness, and it did help, but only because he jolted up to spit it out everywhere!” 

Rose laughed, but the Doctor could already see the suspicious frown on Jackie’s face. “You and the humans?” she repeated. “Why did you say that like you’re so… separate from them?” Rose’s laughter cut out, and she looked down at her lap. There was a moment of silence, and then Jackie spoke in a slow voice. “It’s been a lot longer for you than it has for us, hasn’t it?” Rose hesitated, but then nodded once, unable to lie to her mum. Jackie got up and walked around the coffee table so that she could pull Rose into a hug. “Oh, sweetheart. How long has it been?”

“I don’t even know for sure,” Rose admitted in a voice just above a whisper. “But I don’t think that it would be inaccurate to say thousands of years.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

Rose breathed out, and clutched her mum tighter. “I didn’t want you to be disappointed. You were so worried that I was going to become, well, exactly what I am now. I was afraid that you were going to look at me and say that I’m not Rose Tyler anymore.”

Jackie shook her head. “Would anyone but Rose Tyler be so worried about disappointing me?” Both of them laughed lightly at that, and the Doctor nodded to himself, glad that he’d convinced Rose to stay. Jackie finally pulled away and gave Rose a long look, as if she was trying to find evidence of Rose’s age. “If it’s really been so long, then why come back to me after so much time?”

Rose glanced at the Doctor, and he gave her an encouraging smile, so she turned back to Jackie. “Because I thought you deserved to know that you’re going to be a grandmother.”

Jackie’s eyes widened, and then she let out a squeal of joy in an annoyingly high pitch. The Doctor was tempted to point out that only dogs should be able to hear noises at that pitch, but held back his extreme wit because he didn’t want to ruin the moment. He slipped out of the room, happy to give Rose some time to talk to her mother alone. He was sure that they both had a lot to talk about.

,,,

The Doctor looked at Rose in surprise. “How long were you gone for?” 

Despite the Doctor’s warnings about traveling without a container when she was in her current pregnant condition, Rose had abruptly taken off to go somewhere a couple of hours ago. And when she’d left, it definitely hadn’t looked like there was a beachball stuffed under her shirt. Rose furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, then glanced down at her stomach. “Oh. Oh-! Yes, I’m very sorry, love, I hadn’t meant to be gone for months, but there were a few errands I needed to run, and I didn’t need you finding out about them.”

The Doctor put his hands on his hips, and tried to look stern. “Rose-”

She waved aside his concern, and then stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss, though he had to bend down quite a bit to make up for the large lump in between them. She pulled away, and gave the Doctor a grin. “I would know if anything bad was going to happen, I promise. I may be stubborn, but I wouldn’t endanger our child, and I’m not even sure if it’s possible to endanger myself.”

The Doctor wanted to remain upset, but it had been hours since he’d last seen her, and he decided to forgo his righteous upset-ness just this once. Besides, he couldn’t help thinking that it was quite fascinating to see such clear proof that Rose was having his child. So yeah, he’d forgive her just this once (which is what he told himself every time she looked at him with those eyes and got him to forget about whatever problem he’d had with her). 

,,,

“So… a baby, huh? That’s a pretty big deal.” 

Rose grinned up at River. “Yeah. Don’t worry, we’ve been planning on asking you to be the godmother for months, we just hadn’t found any good times.” 

River crossed her arms over her chest, but there was an unhideable smile on her face. “Godmother, huh? Yeah, I can handle that.”

“Great! I hope you know that the title does come with mandatory babysitting hours. I may love the TARDIS to pieces, but even she can’t properly care for an infant. Besides, I don’t think we’ll be giving the kid free roam of the TARDIS for quite a while, even once they can walk on their own.”

River laughed. “And knowing what overachievers you both are, I’m assuming that they’re going to be running around as soon as they pop out of you?”

Rose snorted. “Well, Gallifreyans tend to physically age slower than humans due to their longer lifespan, and there was definitely nothing exceptional about me as a child, so I’m sure that those two things will cancel each other out and make for a perfectly normal baby. Though even if they were the farthest from normal possible, I’d still love them.” Her voice softened, and she reached out to hold River’s hand. “Is that alright with you?”

River nodded. “Yeah. You know, this makes me think that maybe I really should get around to meeting my brother. Family’s pretty important, huh?”

The Doctor cleared his throat to interrupt the bizarrely normal-sounding conversation. “As glad as I am that you’re having this talk, why is it happening right now?!” Rose glanced down at where the Doctor was standing, bent over to peer in between her legs as the baby was slowly pushed out. “I’ve seen videos of humans giving birth, and they were absolutely not carrying on average conversations during the main event!” 

River laughed. “Well, one thing that is definitely normal here is that the father is much more freaked out than the mother.” Then she tilted her head to the side. “Huh. Do you still count as the father when you’ve lived many years in a female form?”

It hadn’t occurred to the Doctor to even think about such things, oddly enough. It was almost like he was more concerned with making sure that his child came into the world safe and healthy. Rose answered while the Doctor continued to stare at the crowning head that seemed far too large for the space it was emerging from. “Well, it was definitely this male form that impregnated me, so I’d say he counts as father. If he regenerates into a woman again, we’ll renegotiate what our child will call them.”

The Doctor carefully cupped his hand under the baby’s head and didn’t even have to instruct Rose to push, she just did it, and slowly but surely the kid was brought out into the world. It was hard to believe that they had fit inside of Rose at all. “Hello,” he murmured, feeling exhausted even as Rose looked like she was glowing. “Welcome to the universe. I’m the Doctor, and that’s…” he trailed off when he realized that it didn’t just seem like Rose was glowing; she was actually glowing. A golden light radiating all around her. “Rose, what’s-?”

She looked down at herself and the Doctor felt her surprise through the bond. “Have I not yet done enough for this universe that I haven’t earned the ability to just sit and get to know my brand new daughter?”

The Doctor glanced down at the naked baby in his arms, but this wasn’t the time to be arguing gender when Rose seemed like she was about to disappear any moment and she was still connected to the baby. He grabbed the scissors that he’d sanitized and set aside specifically for this event, and cut the cord. “Oh, Rose, can’t you wait a few more minutes? You still need to get out the…” he trailed off when his wife just glowed brighter and brighter, but instead of her disappearing, the light just vanished after a few seconds. “Are you alright? What just happened?”

Rose silently reached out, and he gently transferred the baby into her arms. The kid still needed to be cleaned off, and definitely looked like the wrinkled little gremlin that the Doctor had expected, but he couldn’t deny that it was the cutest little gremlin out there. The Doctor perched on the edge of the bed so that he could reach out and wrap his arms around Rose, and wait for her to tell him what was going on. 

They just stared down at their precious new child for a few minutes before Rose cleared her throat a few times, and the Doctor realized that she was crying, and he could feel sorrow and loss through the bond. “Rose?” 

She leaned closer to the Doctor, shifting the child to rest on both of their laps. “She’s so, so, so perfect. But she’s only human. She wasn’t going to make it, so Bad Wolf helped, during that time when I was away for a few months. I thought that it meant that she’d inherit even a little bit of me, so that we’d have a long-lasting family, but now that she’s born, the power had to return to me or it would have killed her.” 

River leaned over to gently extract the baby from the new parents. “I’ll go clean her off,” she said softly. 

Once River was gone, Rose started crying more, and turned to bury her face in the Doctor’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, and squeezed his eyes shut. Their child was alive and healthy and they would make damn sure that she lived a long and happy life, but it would never be long enough. Why did they always have to leave the people they cared about behind? 

After a few minutes, Rose pulled away to look the Doctor in the eyes. “You know what this means, right?” The Doctor was hesitant to guess, because he couldn’t imagine that it meant anything good. Rose gave him a small, watery smile. “It means that we’ll just have to make the most of every moment that we have with her. And we’ll have to take a thousand pictures and make a thousand paintings and give her the best life possible, and swear that we will never forget her.”

The Doctor nodded. “Yeah. We’ll do all of that, and more, I swear.” The two of them remained huddled together for a while, trying to remain optimistic about the future while also questioning why the universe seemed so intent on constantly hurting them.

,,,

A long time ago, or even longer ago still, there was a universe born into existence. First, there was Nothing. Then there was Space, and then there was Time. Space and Time made a vow that they would always be one, unable to bear the idea of being apart for even a moment. 

But slowly, the universe began to fill up. Particles became rocks which became planets, and on those planets, the smallest specks became living creatures. With so much to watch over, Time and Space were worried that they could not fulfill their purposes while also remaining together. 

Time came up with a solution, but was worried that Space would not approve. Time existed simultaneously in every moment that has ever happened or would ever happen, which made it difficult to be with Space. So Time figured out how to be spread less thin. 

Time pushed through the pain and sliced off small pieces of itself, putting the pieces into the only containers that would be strong enough to hold them. Each piece was still Time, but somehow something of its own as well. 

When Time was in the middle of working on the solution, Space discovered what was going on. Time was startled by Space’s reaction, and accidentally cut off a piece bigger than intended. The piece of Time fell, somewhere out of reach, onto one of the many baby planets that were just starting out. Losing such a large piece injured Time more than expected, and suddenly anchoring Time to just one time did not seem like such a good idea. 

Time began falling apart, no matter how much Space tried to hold Time together. If Time was destroyed, the universe would be as well, because it could not exist without both Time and Space. So as more pieces bled out of Time, Time stored them all in the special containers, hoping that if every piece was preserved, the universe would be able to continue on, even if it would be exactly the same as before. 

When there was only one piece left, both Space and Time knew that it was the end for them. Space promised to figure out a way to fix Time, but neither of them truly believed it was possible. Time was ready to be stored in a container as well, and hope that the universe would survive.

But there were no containers left. Time panicked, and searched everywhere for something, anything that could hold Time without breaking apart at the seams. Even the tiny piece that was left would be enough to cause terrible destruction. And then Time got an idea, this one better than the last. 

In a universe with new life constantly spawning in it, surely no one would care if one more being were to be made. The piece of Time that was left was too weak, but when combined with Space, there was very little that could not be accomplished. Together, they created the perfect vessel.

But just before Time could enter it, Time dropped it, and it was lost in a different moment. Time was too weak to search for it, and Space had no dominion over Time, and no way to search. Time cried out in despair, for the fate of the universe, for having to leave Space, and for Time itself. Space promised that they would be together again, but between one moment and the next, Time was gone, but the universe was still whole, and Space knew that somehow, Time’s vessel had finally found Time. 

Then all that was left was for Space to continue forward, the only way Space could go, until Space and Time could be reunited someday. 

Someday, much, much later, the Doctor and Rose meet for the first time, and Time and Space are one step closer to finding each other again.


End file.
